• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.49-58
• /
• 2013

A selected halogenated organic contaminant, monochlorophenol was successfully degraded by photocatalytic reaction in a circulating batch system. The photocatalytic degradation in most cases follows first-order kinetics. The photocatalytic reaction rate increased in the $TiO_2$ dosage range of 0.1 g/L to 0.4 g/L, then decreased with further increase of the dosage. Also the degradation rate increased over the range of the retention time from 0.49 min. to 0.94 min., then decreased with further increase of the retention time in the circulating batch reactor. The photocatalytic activity was enhanced by addition of metal impurities, platinum(Pt) and palladium(Pd) onto the photocatalysts. The photocatalytic degradation rate increased with the increase of Pt and Pd in the content range of 0 to 2wt %, then decreased with further increase of the metal contents. Therefore the metal loading to $TiO_2$ influence the degradation rate of a halogenated organic compound by acting as electron traps, consequently reducing the electron/positive hole pair recombination rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.02a
• /
• pp.91-91
• /
• 2012

We aim in synthesizing various functional thin films thinner than ~ 10 nm for environmental applications and photovoltaic devices. Atomic layer deposition is used for synthesizing inorganic thin films with a precise control of the film thickness. Several examples about application of our thin films for removing volatile organic compounds (VOC) will be highlighted, which are summarized in the below. 1) $TiO_2$ thin films prepared by ALD at low temperature ($<100^{\circ}C$) show high adsorption capacity for toluene. In combination with nanostructured templates, $TiO_2$ thin films can be used as building-block of high-performing VOC filter. 2) $TiO_2$ thin films on carbon fibers and nanodiamonds annealed at high temperatures are active for photocatalytic oxidation of VOCs, i.e. photocatalytic filter can be created by atomic layer deposition. 3) NiO can catalyze oxidation of toluene to $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ at $<300^{\circ}C$. $TiO_2$ thin films on NiO can reduce poisoning of NiO surfaces by reaction intermediates below $200^{\circ}C$. We also fabricated inverted organic solar cell based on ZnO electron collecting layers on ITO. $TiO_2$ thin films with a mean diameter less than 3 nm on ZnO can enhance photovoltaic performance by reducing electron-hole recombination on ZnO surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.02a
• /
• pp.276-276
• /
• 2012

The interface morphology of organic active layers is known to play a crucial role in the performance of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. Especially, a controlled nanostructure with a large contact area between electron donor (D) and acceptor (A) layers is necessary to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cells since the short exciton diffusion lengths in organic semiconductors limit the charge (hole and electron) separation before excitons recombination. In this work, we developed simple solvent treating methods to fabricate a nanostructured DA interface and applied them to enhance the PCE of ZnPc/C60 based small molecule OPV cells. Interestingly, it was observed that the solvent treatment on the donor layer prior to the deposition of the acceptor layer resulted in a significant decrease in PCE, which was due to an existence of undesirable voids at the DA interface. Instead, the solvent vapor treatment after the DA bilayer formation led to densely packed and well dispersed DA contacts. Consequently, 3-fold enhancement of PCE as compared to the untreated bilayer cell was accomplished.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.57-67
• /
• 2021

Photocatalytic green energy H2 production utilizing inexhaustible solar energy has been considered as a potential solution to problems of energy scarcity and environmental contamination. However, the design of a cost-effective photocatalyst using simple synthesis methodology is still a grand challenge. Herein, a low-cost transition metal, Cu-loaded one-dimensional TiO2 nanorods (Cu/TNR) were fabricated using an easy-to-use synthesis methodology for significant H2 production under simulated solar light. X-ray photoelectron spectral studies and electron microscopy measurements provide evidence to support the successful formation of the Cu/TNR catalyst under our experimental conditions. UV-vis DRS studies further demonstrate that introducing Cu on the surface of TNR substantially increases light absorption in the visible range. Notably, the Cu/TNR catalyst with optimum Cu content, achieved a remarkable H2 production with a yield of 39,239 µmol/g after 3 h of solar light illumination, representing 7.4- and 27.7-fold enhancements against TNR and commercial P25, respectively. The notably improved H2 evolution activity of the target Cu/TNR catalyst was primarily attributed to its excellent separation and efficiently hampered recombination of photoexcited electron-hole pairs. The Cu/TNR catalyst is, therefore, a potential candidate for photocatalytic green energy applications.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.37-41
• /
• 2001

Photo catalytic characteristics of nano-sized TiO$_2$ powder with rutile phase produced using homogeneous precipitation process at low temperatures (HPPLT) were compared with those of commercial P-25 powder by Degussa Co. The TiO$_2$ powder by HPPLT showed very higher photoactivity in the removal rate, showing lower pH values in the solution, than the P-25 powder when eliminating metal ions such as Pb and Cu from aqueous metal-EDTA solutions. This can be inferred the more rapid photo-oxidation or -reduction of metal ions from the aqueous solution, together with relatively higher efficiencies in the use of electron-hole pair formed on the surface of TiO$_2$ particle, under UV light irradiation. Also, in the view of the TiO$_2$ particle morphology, compared to the well-dispersed spherical P-25 particle, the agglomerated TiO$_2$ particle by HPPL T consists of acicular typed primary particle with the thickness ranged of 3∼7 nm, which would be more effective to the photocatalytic reactions without electron-hole recombination on the surface of the TiO$_2$ particle under the UV light irradiation. It is, therefore, thought that the higher photo activity of the rutile TiO$_2$ powder by HPPLT in the aqueous solutions resulted from having its higher specific surface area as well as acicular shape primary particle with very thin thickness.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.486-492
• /
• 2005

Into a no-conjugated polymer chain we have introduced side chains with a styrene-linked triphenylamine segment as a $\pi-electron$ donor, styrene-]inked aminobenzaldehyde segment as a tunable reactive -CHO group, and PM (4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-(tert-butyl)-4H-pyran) moiety as a $\pi-electron$ acceptor for red emitting materials. The thermal stability and the optical properties of the statistical copolymers have been studied. All the polymers were electrochemically active and showed electroluminescent emission at around 700nm. The EL device of P5-PM based on the sturcture of $ITO/PPV/polymer/BCP/Alq_3/Al$ showed a maximum brightness of $120cd/m^2\;at\;50mA/cm^2$ with an external quantum efficiency of $0.67\%$. It was possible to enhance the external quantum efficiency by balancing the charge recombination. A red-emitting polymer with high external quantum efficiency was developed by incorporating bifunctionality.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.23-27
• /
• 2023

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) has been used as effective photocatalyst for degradation of antibiotics under visible light irradiation. However, the fast recombination of hole-electron pair may limit their photocatalytic efficiency. In our study, Ag was grafted on g-C₃N₄/g-C₃N₄ isotype heterojunction by a microwave-assisted decomposition method. The structure and physical properties of heterojunction photocatalyst were characterized through X-ray diffraction, UV-DRS, FT-IR, and Photoluminescence analyses. Ag decorated g-C₃N₄/g-C₃N₄ isotype heterojunction exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for degradation of sulfamethoxazole under irradiation under visible light irradiation within 210 min, which is higher than g-C₃N₄/g-C₃N₄ isotype heterojunction and bulk g-C₃N₄. The addition of Ag may broaden the visible light absorption and restrict the recombination of hole-electron pair because of the surface plasmons resonance, resulting in the improving the photocatalytic activity.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.88.2-88.2
• /
• 2010

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies and low cost processes compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photo excited dyes into the conduction band of the semiconductor electrode. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection into either the hole conductor or the electrolyte. Thus, the light harvesting effect of dye plays an important role in capturing the photons and generating the electron/hole pair, as well as transferring them to the interface of the semiconductor and the electrolyte, respectively. We used the organic fluorescence materials which can absorb short wavelength light and emit longer wavelength region where dye sensitize effectively. In this work, the DSSCs were fabricated with fluorescence materials added $TiO_2$ photo-electrode which were sensitized with metal-free organic dyes. The photovoltaic performances of fluorescence aided DSSCs were compared, and the recombination dark current curves and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) efficiencies were measured in order to characterize the effects of the additional light harvesting effect in DSSC. Electro-optical measurements were also used to optimize the fluorescence material contents on TiO2 photo-electrode surface for higher conversion efficiency (${\eta}$), fill factor (FF), open-circuit voltage (VOC) and short-circuit current (ISC). The enhanced light harvesting effect by the judicious choice/design of the fluorescence materials and sensitizing dyes permits the enhancement of photovoltaic performance of DSSC.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.427-427
• /
• 2016

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite have attracted significant attention as a new revolutionary light absorber for photovoltaic device due to its remarkable characteristics such as long charge diffusion lengths (100-1000nm), low recombination rate, and high extinction coefficient. Recently, power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cell is above 20% that is approached to crystalline silicon solar cells. Planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells have simple device structure and can be fabricated low temperature process due to absence of mesoporous scaffold that should be annealed over 500 oC. However, in the planar structure, controlling perovskite film qualities such as crystallinity and coverage is important for high performances. Those controlling methods in one-step deposition have been reported such as adding additive, solvent-engineering, using anti-solvent, for pin-hole free perovskite layer to reduce shunting paths connecting between electron transport layer and hole transport layer. Here, we studied the effect of alkali metal halide to control the fabrication process of perovskite film. During the morphology determination step, alkali metal halides can affect film morphologies by intercalating with PbI2 layer and reducing $CH3NH3PbI3{\cdot}DMF$ intermediate phase resulting in needle shape morphology. As types of alkali metal ions, the diverse grain sizes of film were observed due to different crystallization rate depending on the size of alkali metal ions. The pin-hole free perovskite film was obtained with this method, and the resulting perovskite solar cells showed higher performance as > 10% of power conversion efficiency in large size perovskite solar cell as $5{\times}5cm$. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) are analyzed to prove the mechanism of perovskite film formation with alkali metal halides.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
• /
• v.49 no.10
• /
• pp.187-193
• /
• 2012

Digital X-ray image detector has been applied for medical and industrial fields. Photoconductors have been used to convert the X-ray energy to electrical signal on the direct digital X-ray image detector and amorphous selenium (a-Se) has been used as a photoconductor, normally. In this work, we use 2-dimensional device (2-D) simulator to study about physical phenomena in the a-Se, when we irradiate electromagnetic radiation (${\lambda}=486nm$) on the a-Se surface. We evaluate the electron-hole generation rate, electron-hole recombination rate, and electron/hole distribution in the a-Se using 2-D simulator. This simulator divides the device into triangle and calculates using interpolation method. This simulation method has been proposed for the first time and we expect that it will be applied for the development of digital X-ray image detector.